Marathon Wednesday
By · CommentsI made the most of my day off yesterday… I met Chris in Old Saybrook at 5 and shoved off into a thick fog. It took a while to idle to the first spot but it was worth the wait. We were instantly into fish! I wanted to concentrate on learning how to fish the Shimano Orca. It fishes similar to a big spook but does not have as wide a gait as the spooks. We spent the first hour in 2-4 feet of water and had a ball… It was flat calm and the fog was so thick, you couldn’t see the lure hit the water at the end of the cast. As the Orca neared the boat, more often than not there was a large wake right behind the lure. Changing the cadence usually produced an explosion. We boated some hefty fish that fought well in the shallow water.
Once the fog lifted, we moved a round quite a bit, picking a few fish off at each stop. The bass seemed to be in small pods but spread out widely. We stayed in less than 6 feet for most of the morning. Chris was getting his share of fish on the Slug-Go’s and I stayed with the Orca and spook. We finally lost the tide around 10:30 or so and the bite slowed down to nothing. We kept plugging away till 1 and managed to find a few more fish but it was nothing like the early bite. I was very happy with the size overall.
I made it home by 2. Just enough time to grab some lunch, tie on new leaders and meet Jimmy for round two at the Rocky Hill ramp. By 3:30, the skies had cleared and the wind was honking out of the south with gusts over 25. We fished from Hartford to Cromwell trying to find spots out of the wind, but there really was no place to hide. The wind made boat control impossible. We pretty much had to go with the flow as the trolling motor was useless. The whole afternoon was a struggle but we managed to scrape a couple of fish together. I had a couple of big explosions on a top water but somehow missed them both and managed to lose a stud of a fish on a Houdini Shad. I had that fish on for close to a minute but lost it after a powerful run when the fish turned on me and raced towards the boat. There was a ton of bait at every stop. We couldn’t help but snag a few as they swam side by side with the lures on the way back to the boat. We finally gave in to the wind and headed back to the ramp around 7:30. A very long day on the water but well worth the effort!
Kicking it old school….
By · CommentsTom invited me out for a night trip on the northern stretch of the river. It has been nearly 10 years since I fished up that way and was really looking forward to getting back up there again. This is a very different stretch of water than what I’m used to… Fast and shallow with a very hard and unforgiving bottom. We launched in some pretty skinny water from the ramp at Alberts around 7 and slowly picked our way north. Many areas were less than 3 feet of water but Tom managed to keep us from bumping bottom. We had high hopes after having an inch of rain earlier in the day… We fished for the first hour drifting along waiting for it to get dark. We threw everything we had without a sniff, boil or follow. Things just didn’t feel right. Once it got dark, we moved a mile or so north to fish and area we had been saving for the night bite. That proved to be the ticket. We put a couple of very fat fish in the boat within 20 minutes of making the move. They fought great in the current and were absolutely stuffed with herring… I apologize for my photo, somehow the auto focus of my camera had been switched to manual.
Things really slowed down after the first two fish and we picked away for the next three hours for the next fish. For the most part, we fished in 4 feet of water the entire night. 9″ Revolution Shads did the damage . We gave it till 11 or so and packed it in. It was nice to fish a different area for a change…
Solid morning on the river
By · Comments
Wednesday is my day off from the shop and with the stripers here in size and numbers, I was fishing come hell or high water. I am still without a boat and have been hitching rides with friends. The sessions have been quick 2 hr trips which leaves little time for adjusting to changing conditions… I was able to work a deal with a friend who had a boat that needed service at Reynolds for a steering leak. To save Al the long tow to their shop, he agreed to let me use the boat for the day if I could save him the trip to Reynolds by bringing the boat down when I was done. That was a no brainer.
Next, I needed a partner for the morning. I made a call to Eric to see if he was free to fish for a few hours and he was. We met at the ramp at 4:30 and began the search. The first spot that normally produces for me was unusually slow. Only a few half hearted swirls to show for the first hour and a half on the water. We headed north all the way to Hartford and started working our way back. It didn’t take long to start seeing fish… There was herring everywhere flipping on the surface. With each cast, there would be a dozen that followed the lure back to the boat. We hooked a couple of keepers at each stop along the way and 3 hours into the morning, we were having a solid morning. For the most part, I threw a Houdini or big spook and Eric threw both a Houdini and an umbrella rig with 5″ Salt Shakers on it. The umbrella looked awesome coming through water, apparently the bass agreed. Eric had 3 fish in no time in one short stretch of river.
We kept hopping from spot to spot, each one producing some great hits on top. A couple of times we had some blitzes going on within casting range and at one point we were able to double up with a couple of keepers. We finished the morning drifting one of my favorite flats. There were herring and bass all around the boat. You would think that you couldn’t miss, but that wasn’t the case. With that much bait and crystal clear water, the bass were very wary. We continued to cast when we saw a fish boil, the key to getting them to hit was speed the retrieve up once they began to follow the lure. That helped to get us a couple more hits before we ran out of time. We had temps as high as 63 degrees. The water is extremely low and very clear. We need rain NOW and lots of it if we have any chance of keeping the bait and bass here much longer. The next few days look promising, my fingers are crossed….
A cold keeper
By · CommentsI had an invite from Tom to fish today in his boat, since my new boat has not arrived yet, I jumped at the opportunity. There have been some rumors of keeper sized stripers arriving recently. Typically this time of year, the best bite is before and just after the sun comes up. We decided to meet at 4 and fish for a couple of hours in the dark. It was damned cold for this late in April. The truck said 40 degrees when I stepped out and put the gear on.
The river is high and incredibly dirty so the game plan was to stick to the tributaries instead of the main river. We had a couple of hits from smaller fish in the dark but as it began to get light out, the river came to life. We could see herring flipping around us and there was the occasional swirl from a feeding bass. We kept casting away and just before dawn, I finally hooked up with a decent fish. I was using one of the new jointed swim baits from Savage. Because I was using a fast retrieve, the lure was only a foot below the surface when the fish hit. The tail instantly broke the surface and the fish thrashed around before it got traction and began taking drag. After a couple of minutes, I had her subdued and in the boat. Not a huge fish but definitely a keeper… This was the first fish on the new Calcutta 301D and I was in heaven. I had in matched up with Loomis Pro Blue PBR 843C. The combo was a treat to fish the big swim baits with. The rod loaded nicely and made for effortless casts. I didn’t have a single backlash on the Calcutta and with a 5.6:1 ratio, it made it easy to work the lures quickly. We fished for another hour but things got quiet again.
From there, we put the boat back on the trailer and headed south to the Salmon River ramp. The CT was still pumping mud but as we worked our way up into the Salmon Cove, the water cleaned up nicely. Once again things were quiet. We moved around for an hour or so before finding a few fish. We were never able to hook them but we saw 4 mid 30″ fish follow our lures back to the boat. It was at the least nice to know there were a few fish around. As we checked various spots that had produced for me in the past, I had a solid thump on the Savage. I thought for sure it was a bass but as I got it to the boat, it turned into a pike. On many days, I would have been thrilled to land a pike that big but today, it was not what I was hoping for…
We spent the remainder of the day bouncing between the various marinas on the southern end of the river pitching micro jigs to crappie. They were right on the surface hiding under the docks and along the shadows. More often than not, the bluegill would beat them to the jigs but every once in a while if you could present the jig slow enough a crappie would ease up behind it and suck it in. Late in the day, the wind was really howling which made boat control tough and jigging with light line even tougher. By the time we wrapped it up we had caught a couple dozen crappie… A long day on the river but a lot of fun.
Big things for ’13
By · CommentsI have never been so excited to start a season. It seems as though everything has come together all at the same time for Anderson Guide Services. A new Skeeter SX240 is on the assembly line at this very moment. This is an upgraded model to the Skeeters that I’ve been running for the last several years. We will once again be riding in style… A 24 foot bay boat powered by a Yamaha 250 4-stroke on a jack plate along with trim tabs will allow us to comfortably fish anywhere and everywhere in all conditions.
I recently signed a Pro Staff deal with Humminbird and Minn Kota and will have a dizzying array of new toys to play with this season. Starting on the bow, we have a Minn Kota Riptide 101 with the all new i-Pilot Link. The trolling motor now talks directly to the Humminbird GPS. Boat control will be a breeze even in a nor’ easter. check out the video below to see what this will do for us on our trips:
This year, the Humminbird 1198 Side Imaging is back again but this time there is a major difference in its capabilities… The big news on the sonar front is that I will also now have Humminbird’s latest and greatest fish finding technology. The new 360 Imaging is the ultimate upgrade to the Side Imaging series of units and will revolutionize they way that we look at fish, bait and structure forever… Complete 360 degree coverage under and around the boat:
As if that wasn’t enough, we will also be running Humminbird’s new 4KW radar unit. This will allow us to safely run in the dark and fog, perfect for those O-Dark:30 departures for Block Island and Montauk.
For the days that we target bass on the shallow flats or northern pike on the river, the dual Minn Kota Talons will prove invaluable. This will allow us to fish in complete stealth with pin point boat control. Even in heavy winds and ripping currents, the wave absorption system will keep us locked in position so that we can concentrate on fishing.
The boat should be here in the next week or so. The electronics are mostly here, I’m still waiting on the 360 imaging unit to arrive. I will also be receiving a pile of new Shimano gear in any day now as well. I can’t wait to break into those boxes and start spooling reels! We will be fishing with Trinidads, Calcuttas, Sustains and Stradics this year. They will be mounted on Terez, Travala and Teramar rods….
First Blood
By · CommentsWe’ve had a few trips with a couple of albies in the boat here and there but today was the first day that we crushed them. I switched my day off to Monday now since Andrew is now closed on Mondays…
The wind was forecast to blow hard, but with it coming out of the NW, we figured we could find lots of places to stay out of the worst of it and still have a reasonable shot at hard tails. We launched around 5:30 and made our way east. The wind was blowing good and increasing. According to the station at Ledge Light it was gusting to 25 for most of the day…
It wasn’t looking good early. We fished from the Race all the way to Watch Hill and saw nothing but blues. The wind combined with the swell from storm Leslie offshore made for some crazy surf around the Watch Hill complex.There were birds and bait everywhere but no albies. FINALLY, once the tide changed we started seeing fast moving blitzes that would appear with a fury and fade to nothing in seconds. You absolutely had to be upwind of the fish as there was just no way to make an accurate cast into the wind.
I broke the ice with the first albie and from there it just got better and better.
The fish were up and down so quickly, it made it nearly impossible to chase them down. We decided to just wait them out and let them come to us. We would still have to fire up the boat occasionally to get the boat in position but we never had to run far. Throughout the day we put a couple dozen albies in the boat. We caught on Sebiles, Albie Snax, and tins. By the end of the trip, the boat was trashed… That’s way it should be!
Fishing in the rain
By · CommentsWe get these days every once in a while. Today was a wet one! I had Dan and his son Tom and daughter Nichole on board. We left the dock at 5 in a steady rain and headed out in search of scup. We spent about 45 minutes to get a dozen and half baits. There was only about an hour left of the incoming tide so we got right down to business. Nicole boated the first bass mid way through the first drift. Not a big fish, but the skunk was gone…
Tom hooked up with a nice fish that was a bit over 40″. Unfortunately, it was raining too hard to pull the camera out of the dry bag. We had one more decent fish before we lost the tide. While we waited for the turn, we headed out to deeper water to see what we could find out there. We marked a few fish on the Humminbird 1198 but just couldn’t get them to eat. We gave it a few drift but then headed back in to 35 feet of water. The tide had finally turned when we got there. It took a couple of drifts but we manged to find another bass before things completely died off…
We had plenty of good bait left but with no fish around, I decided to make a move to another rockpile a few miles away. It proved to be a good move as Tom hooked up immediately. The fish gave Tom a run for his money, taking him around the boat a couple of times. As the fish got close to the boat, I had to fire up the Yamaha to jockey the boat around to keep the fish out from under us and away from the trim tabs and prop.
Things never really got going after that, we finished the morning there and put one more fish in the boat. We ended up going 8 for 11 on hook ups with 4 fish over 40″. Not a bad day considering the conditions. The bait is definitely getting easier to find and the bass are right where they should be… I love fishing in June!
Back in the salt… It only takes one!
By · CommentsWow! What an incredible day…
My river fishing lately has been a struggle to say the least. We’ve fished from Hartford to Old Saybrook with very little to show for our efforts. There are quite a few bass along with plenty of bait in the river but they have been very hard to hook with big lures. I informed a couple of clients I had booked for this week of the recent lack of action and we decided to reschedule for the salt water once things picked up there. So, today was to be a day for scouting my favorite haunts in hopes of finding enough bait and quality bass to make the switch back to Niantic. There have been lots of great reports from the eastern end of Long Island Sound of mid to upper 30″ fish but I was anxious to see if the bigger fish I target were here yet. Porgy season is now open, the question was would I be able to scrape enough together for bait yet???
The last few years, I’ve always brought my good luck charm Stroby with me on the forray in the salt. Why mess with what has worked so well in the past?? Stroby met me at the house at 3:45am and we shoved off for Niantic. I told Bob before we even got in the truck that I had a great feeling about today… It was pretty foggy on the way down so we took our time and were in the water by 5 headed out under the bridges. Not really sure where to start looking for porgy, we started near my favorite drift in 15 feet of water. The plan was to move progressively deeper till we found them. As it turns out, we didn’t have to go too far. It wasn’t fast action, but we put 6 baits between 11 and 13 inches in the livewell in about 45 minutes. We decided to hit the closest rock pile while we still had some tide left and then return for more bait during the slack.
We were drifting at about .5MPH on the initial drop, so I eased the trolling motor in and gave us a little more speed. This works very well around the slack and has put some big fish in the boat before. Bob and I both had hits on the first drift, but I believe the bass were mid 30″ fish and couldn’t quite grab the scup we had on the hooks. The next drift, I moved over to a different drift lane on the other side of the rock pile. It didn’t take long for my scup to get nervous. A few seconds of frantic dancing was quickly followed by a solid THUMP! The fish didn’t scream line off the open spool like some do,, she just slowly and steadily swam away… I lightly thumbed the spool and let the fish take the line for a 5 count and pushed the lever drag forward, fish on! Gotta love the Mustad Circle hooks… It became clear very quickly that this was a powerful fish. One of the big reasons that I like the Daiwa Saltiga braid so much is that it is color coded much like lead core line so you always know just how much line is coming off the reel. The first 30 yards seemed to fly off the reel in the blink of an eye. 40 yards. 50 yards. 60 yards. Still no signs of slowing. I had Bob reel up and fire up the big motor to try and keep up with the fish. By the time I started gaining on the bass, it had stripped nearly 100 yards off on the initial run. Mike Laptew captured on video the only other fish that had done this to me before and that fish ended up popping off before we could get it turned. The odds were not in my favor…
We were finally gaining on the fish and I was relieved to see the angle of the line change as we were able to put more pressure on bass. My relief was short lived however as I felt the fish take me into the rocks. It was a sickening feeling, one that I’ve felt many times before. I backed off on the lever drag but still kept a slight bend in the rod and continued gaining line on the fish. Suddenly the line went slack. I let out a few choice words but kept reeling like a mad man just in case the fish was still there. There was just enough weight still on the line that I wasn’t sure if the fish was actually gone or not. I felt a slight pop as the line pulled free of whatever it had been hung on and suddenly, the line changed direction and went screaming past me. I jumped off the bow platform and followed the fish to the back of the boat. I told Bob that this was a real big bass and that we may want to break out the video camera… We got the rest of the fight on video…
After changing direction, the fish again made another run of almost 100 yards. This time, as most big fish do, she headed towards the surface. I was fairly confident that this was now a caught fish. As long as I didn’t push the drag too hard and possibly part a very frayed line we might actually land this fish. About 75 yards behind the boat, the fish finally came up, wallowing around on the surface. I could clearly see the distance between the dorsal fin and tail and knew she was a huge fish! The rest of the fight was uneventfull, steady pressure and slow pumps of the rod and she was along side the boat. WHAT A FISH. I knew it was big, but until I actually grabbed the lower jaw and tried to hoist her over the rail, I had no idea how trully massive she was…
I decided to put her on the Boga Grip for a quick weight but she promptly buried the scale… OK, she’s over 60 pounds, now what? My Boga is attached to a lanyard for just this reason. I put her back in the water while I cleared the deck of rods and got the camera ready. My tape measure only goes to 49″ and this was way longer than that. We took a few quick pictures and got my spool of fluorocarbon out. I cut one piece to her length and another for girth so I could get accurate measurements off the fluoro later. We put the fish back in the water and began the revival process. In the past, I have spent upwards of 20 minutes working a fish for release but it was clear after 5 minutes that this fish was done. Totally exhausted in the fight, she rolled over. The dorsal was down, the pectoral fins tucked in and she wasn’t pumping enough water through the gills. I don’t enjoy killing big fish like this one and I’d say that 95 percent of bass caught even on my charters are released. I felt we had done just about all we could to release the fish but in the end, she didn’t make it. I probably should have gotten an official weight on her but the closest shop didn’t have a big enough scale and the next closest shop hadn’t opened yet. After thinking about it awhile and talking it over with Bob, I decided against hanging it on a scale for a few more photos. We had a few good ones when she was alive and kicking and I left it at that. I am working on the video now but am taking my time to make sure everything is the way I want on it as I am pretty sure that this fish is the largest striper ever faught on video…
OK… We got our hands on a bigger tape measure thanks to Captain Pat (T-Man) Renna. The length was 57.5″ and she had a girth of 32.25″ Based on the formula that the IGFA uses,
( Girth x Girth x Length / 800 =Weight) I came up with a weight of 74.75 pounds!
Here are a few pics of the fish…
An afternoon with eagles
By · Comments
Fishing has been so good lately, it’s hard to stay away from the river. I’ve been working the morning shift at Connecticut Outfitters during the week so I am able to get out in the afternoons. I loaded the dog in the truck and met Tom at Wethersfield Cove at 12:30 and we headed off to try a different spot. Things were very slow to start off. We tried lots of different lures with only a few half hearted boils below them. I did have one huge hit on a Spook, the fish knocked the lure 3 feet in the air but never connected with the hooks. After going through most of our gear with no results, we tried on some surface swimmers from Lloyds Lures. It didn’t take long to figure out that was the right move… We had several fish come up and take a look and Tom finally stuck one. Saxi was beside herself with the screaming drag and thrashing striper and needed to be reminded to stay in the boat.
The action remained steady for the next hour or so with some fish boiing and rolling on the lure several times before striking while others just appeared out of nowhere and smashed the swimmers with no warning. There were a couple of smaller fish boated but there were also some nicer fish taken. Tom had the hot lure, they really liked the yellow.
The highlight of the day was watching a juvenile bald eagle swoop down several times attempting to grab the surface swimmers. At one point he dove down with his feet out in front and talons extended only to turn away within a foot of the plug. It was incredible to watch. I snapped a few pictures. Everytime i reached for the video camera, he would fly off and sit in a tree watching us. As soon as we would turn our backs to resume fishing he would sneak up again and dive bomb the lures again. Eventually he figured that the plugs were not worth the effort and disappeared down the river.
Another nice morning on the river…
By · Comments
I had so much fun yesterday I decided to do it all over again today. I called around but couldn’t talk anyone into skipping work to come play with me. Tom agreed to fish till 7:30, we decided to launch at 4 to give us more time. It was 45 at the ramp this morning, a bit cooler than yesterday and the moon was still very bright which made navigating a little more relaxing. We headed straight to where I had them yesterday. We fished for almost a half an hour with nothing and then we had 2 quick hits while running the Revo Shads fast. Tom hooked up briefly but lost his. Not sure what the difference was but things were not the same as they were yesterday. It was pretty slow for the next hour, we fished topwaters, plastics and swimmers with no action at all. Tom finally hooked up and put a fish in the boat with a Revo Shad… After the initial fish, we were back were we started from, very slow.
There was a decent amount of bait around, the fish had to be there with them… I decided to change things up and fish deeper. I cut the Revo Shad off in favor of a Bass Harasser and started bouncing the bottom in 7 feet of water. A few minutes later I thumped hard and set the hook. It was a mid 30 inch fish that fought great in the current. Unfortunately, it came off right at the back of the boat. We thought maybe we were on to something by fishing deeper with the bright sun. In the next 3 drifts, I put 3 keepers in the boat. Fishing the lures so slow allowed the stripers to really smake them. Two of the fish completely inhaled the lures, they were not coming off…
Tom eventually ran out of time and I headed back to the ramp to drop him off. I still had plenty of time and thought I could do some more damage so I headed right back out again. The fish were still holding deep when I returned and I went back to throwing the Bass Harasser again. In the next 3 hours, I managed to put 3 more in the boat and lost 2 others after lengthy battles. I also missed a handfull of hits. A few times as I bounced the lure along the bottom, I felt light bumps and the lure came back with herring scales on the hook and eventually I ended up snagging one. I couldn’t resist laying the fish next to some of my top producing lures for a quick photo. It’s easy to see why these lure fool so many bass…
Another awesome morning on the CT River. Back to work tomorrow but I may try sneaking out for a run and gun trip in the afternoon…
Here are a few more pics from the morning on the water, enjoy!
